14 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



but not that of an oak. This brief sketch will give some idea of 

 scope of this early lexicon and of the language treated. 



Zeisberger wrote an essay on an Onondaga grammar nearly lOO 

 years later, in which he divided words into simple and compound, 

 the participle being usually lacking. Nouns had three genders, but 

 no cases, and he mentioned but two numbers where others recognize 

 three. The plural adds a syllable, as that of schoh. In words end- 

 ing in a^ e, o, relating to rivers, roads, hills, springs, etc. nnie is 

 added, and hogu or ogu to others. Nouns compounded with ios, 

 meaning long, change this into es in the singular, and eso in the 

 plural. Thus we have garonta, a tree, garontes, long tree, garonteso, 

 long trees. In compounding with numerals age is sometimes added 

 at the end, but tekeni, two, is often prefixed and shortened to t'. 

 The initial G may signify the first person, 6" the second, H the third, 

 and G may also indicate the feminine in the third persons, but these 

 are not all. 



There are many rules for compoundmg words. The comparative 

 degree adds haga or tschihha, and the superlative tschik to the pos- 

 itive. Prepositions he placed at the end of nouns, but they some- 

 times occur at the beginning. An instance of the former is 

 ochnecanos, zvater, ochenecage, in the water. According to him 

 gachera is added to signify on, ocu for under, acta for at, on or by, 

 ati for over on the other side, ge or chne for to, etc. There were 

 many conjunctions»and adverbs, and interjections were much used. 



He mientioned but three moods and three tenses. The infinitive 

 is the root and the present indicative formed from it by substituting 

 a pronoun for the first syllable. The perfect adds a syllable of 

 various forms, and the future is like the present with en or in 

 prefixed. 



In writing on the Iroquois language Horatio Hale referred to 

 M. Cuoq's excellent lexicon, published a few years since. According 

 to the latter writer 12 letters sufficed for all words, but the Rev. 

 Asher Wright used 17 with proper marks. The English mission- 

 aries used 16, and Mr Hale thought the Mohawk had seven con- 

 sonants and four vowels. Three nasal sounds made his number 14. 

 K and G, D and T were interchangeable. Numbers were singular, 

 dual and plural. The dual prefixes te and suffixes ke to the noun. 

 With a numeral adjective the plural prefixes ni to the noun and 



